Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Lara B Aknin, Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Simon Fraser University

Gratitude statements like “Thanks! You are so kind!” and “Thank you! What you did was really helpful,” are common when someone receives assistance from another person. Such expressions of gratitude and appreciation have long been thought to encourage the helper to do kind things again in the future. But do they?

In contrast to past research, our new findings published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggest that gratitude does not always promote future helping.

Our research was conducted using a new approach called a Registered Report. It required that the design of our experiment, along with our hypotheses and analytic plans, were vetted by experts before we started. This new best practice in science increases rigour and transparency.

Expressions of gratitude

We conducted two large pre-registered experiments and found mixed results. In the first experiment, more than 600 university students recorded a short video to welcome a new student (played by a member of our research team) to campus.

In response to this kind act, we sent participants one of three randomly assigned pre-recorded videos. Some participants received a video in which the new student expressed gratitude for the participant’s kind act: “Thank you! What you did was very kind.”

Other participants received a video in which the new student expressed gratitude for the participant’s kind character: “Thank you! You are very kind.”

Finally, some participants in a control condition received a video of the new student acknowledging that they had received the recording, but with no expression of gratitude at all.

Afterwards, all participants were invited to write up to five brief notes to welcome other new students to university, which we treated as a measure of future helping behaviour.

Reception and kindness

By sending participants one of the three video replies, we were able to test two important questions about gratitude. Does receiving an expression of gratitude, regardless of whether it mentions your kind act or kind character, lead to more helping in the future compared to not receiving gratitude? Also, does the content of the gratitude matter — in other words, do some gratitude notes lead to more helping in the future than others?

To find out, we compared how many welcome notes participants wrote across the three video conditions provided. We found no differences across conditions, which suggests that receiving a gratitude expression and its contents may not impact future helping.

These results were in contrast to our predictions and past work by others.

Written expressions

Welcoming new students is one way to be kind, but there are many other ways to help. So, we conducted another experiment to test the same key questions. Does receiving a gratitude expression increase future helping behaviour? And does the content of the gratitude message matter?

This time, however, we used written thank-you messages instead of videos and measured helping in the form of donations.

Over 800 adults recruited online completed an innocuous survey that provided an opportunity to complete an initial kind act of donating to charity. Two days later, participants were invited back to complete a second survey that began with what we told participants was a thank-you letter from the charity they supported — participants received one of three letters we had created for the purposes of our study.

As in the first study, some participants were thanked for their kind act: “Thank you! Your generous donation was very kind.” Other participants were thanked for their kind character: “Thank you! You are very kind and generous.”

Once again, some participants did not receive a message of thanks, but were informed that their donation had been received. Participants completed a few other questions and were then given the opportunity to help again by deciding how much, if any, of an additional one-dollar bonus they would like to donate to a new charity.

We compared donations across the three conditions and found that people who received a thank-you note gave more money than people who received a simple message that their donation was received. Donation levels did not differ between the two types of gratitude expressions. People thanked for their kind act gave roughly as much (42 cents) as people who were thanked for their kind character (42 cents), which was higher than the 34 cents given by people in the control condition.

---

Read more:
When you’re grateful, your brain becomes more charitable

---

Everyday importance

While we did not see significant differences in help provided by people who were thanked for their kind action or character, this does not mean that people should stop saying thanks. Expressing gratitude can make the person expressing appreciation feel good and strengthen social relationships.

There may be less reason to stress over how exactly you express your appreciation to others. Past research has shown that many people are uncertain about how to properly and eloquently relay their gratitude.

Unfortunately, these worries can reduce the likelihood of someone sharing a simple but heartfelt statement of appreciation and our work reinforces this same underlying idea.

Exactly what is said when expressing thanks may be less important than communicating appreciation.

Kelton Travis, an honours undergraduate student in psychology at Simon Fraser University, co-authored this article.

Lara B Aknin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Anurada Amarasekera, Kristina Castaneto, and Tiara A Cash do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Expressing gratitude isn’t necessary, but a little appreciation may still go a long way – https://theconversation.com/expressing-gratitude-isnt-necessary-but-a-little-appreciation-may-still-go-a-long-way-262779

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Giancarlo Di Giuseppe, PhD Candidate, Division of Epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Imagine being 25, fresh out of post-secondary education and full of optimism about starting your career, and then you hear the words: “You have cancer.”

You are suddenly faced with an unexpected health shock that not only threatens your physical health, but also your financial future. Most of your time is now spent feeling unwell and travelling to and from the hospital for treatment, while your friends and colleagues continue to build their careers.

This is the reality for nearly 1.2 million adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer each year worldwide, a number that is projected to rise. Just over 9,000 Canadian adolescents and young adults are diagnosed with cancer annually, and 85 per cent of them will survive their illness.

And while survival is the primary goal, many don’t realize that it comes with a hidden price that extends far beyond immediate medical costs.

It is estimated that the average Canadian affected by cancer faces $33,000 in lifetime costs related to their illness, totalling $7.5 billion each year for patients and their families.

But we have recently discovered the true economic impact on adolescents and young adults with cancer is often far greater than the previous numbers show and lasts much longer than previously recognized.

The financial penalty of survival

We compared 93,325 Canadian adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer and 765,240 similar individuals who did not experience cancer, and found that surviving cancer leads to long-term reduced income, which may last a lifetime.

On average, a cancer diagnosis results in a greater than five per cent reduction in earnings over a 10-year period after diagnosis.

As expected, income loss is more pronounced right after diagnosis, with survivors earning 10 to 15 per cent less in the first five years.

However, these hidden survival costs are not the same for everyone, and the financial toll varies greatly depending on the type of cancer. For instance, survivors of brain cancer see their average annual income drop by more than 25 per cent. This is a devastating financial burden — and one that endures.

The true lifetime effects are unknown, but it is not difficult to imagine how a financial setback like this can completely derail a young person’s financial future.

Why cancer costs young survivors more

Adolescents and young adults who are survivors of cancer experience “financial toxicity,” which refers to the direct costs of cancer, such as treatment or medication costs, and indirect costs like reduced work ability, extended sick leave and job loss.

Over one-third of young cancer patients report financial toxicity.

Many cancer survivors experience lasting adverse physical and cognitive effects that limit everyday functioning.

Even in the Canadian universal health-care system, which does not require payment for cancer treatment, many younger Canadians are unable to work and need to rely on family members for financial support.

The impact on work capacity is significant for adolescents and young adults who are just beginning their careers, causing them to miss critical years of career development during treatment and recovery that can have cascading economic effects.

These challenges can ultimately lead to financial instability and hardship.

Paying the price

Beyond the individual hardships, the issue of financial instability among young cancer survivors is becoming a broader societal challenge.

In 2025, young Canadian cancer survivors are entering an economy with an unfavourable job market and rising youth unemployment, as well as a widening gap between wages and housing affordability.
Rising inflation and general unaffordability are also compounding financial difficulties young Canadian cancer survivors face, ultimately making financial recovery more challenging.

Income is a fundamental social determinant of health, and financial inequities can perpetuate health disparities in cancer survivors after treatment.

Patients are forced into making devastating financial choices like depleting their savings and incurring debt.

Policy

A Canadian Cancer Society 2024 report highlights the urgency for support systems to address financial well-being after cancer.

Based on our research, which assesses the financial life of adolescent and young adult survivors of cancer, we have some recommendations for Canadian policymakers, businesses and primary care providers.

Policymakers should:

• Make employment insurance benefits that better support survivors post-treatment.
• Provide tax credits for groups of cancer survivors disproportionately affected by financial toxicity, such as those with brain cancer.

Primary care providers should:

• Incorporate financial navigation counselling into their cancer care.
• Provide resources for navigating insurance and financial assistance programs.
• Routinely screen for financial toxicity as part of survivorship care.

Employers should:

• Create a supportive work environment that accommodates the unique needs of cancer survivors.
• Recognize the physical and mental challenges faced by young survivors and provide flexible work arrangements.

Young cancer survivors have already faced one of life’s most difficult challenges. They shouldn’t have to struggle with financial insecurity.

By recognizing that survivorship starts at cancer diagnosis, we must broaden the conversation about cancer care beyond the clinical to the economic.

Jason D. Pole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointments.

Giancarlo Di Giuseppe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The hidden costs of cancer for young survivors is derailing their financial futures – https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-costs-of-cancer-for-young-survivors-is-derailing-their-financial-futures-256420

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Marie Trotter, PhD Candidate, Department of English, McGill University

Are you addicted to endless scrolling? Trapped by the algorithms on your smartphone? Theatre might just be the antidote.

“Denmark’s a prison,” says Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in one of Shakespeare’s most famous dramas. In this scene, he is speaking to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who have been recruited to spy on him by his mother and uncle.

Hamlet isn’t literally imprisoned, but he does feel trapped by his circumstances. He comes to realize that his uncle murdered his father, married his mother and then seized the kingship. He is being watched. He wants to escape the surveillance of the Danish court.

More than 400 years after Hamlet’s first performance, experts have warned that we are trapped and manipulated by the surveillance of our smartphones. Our online behaviour has transformed us into marketable data, and addictive algorithms have bound us to an endless recycling of what we have “liked.”

Digital tribalism threatens democracy

This digital herding also affects who we interact with online. We often find ourselves gathering with others who like the same people and share the same politics, seeking both protection and alleviation from loneliness.

This new form of digital entrapment has given birth to a kind of tribalism — a strong sense of loyalty to a group or community — that political and social researchers warn may threaten a foundational practice of democracy: the possibility of authentic conversation among people.

The technologies of surveillance have drastically changed since Shakespeare’s time. Today, our habits are transformed into data by a virtual panopticon of devices.

The loneliness that many of us, especially young people, are suffering echoes Hamlet’s sense of isolation and inability to voice his true feelings.

While our culture is very different from Shakespeare’s London, his plays — and those by others — still have the potential to bring people together and help us think deeply about our shared experience.

Shakespeare’s playhouse conversations

In Hamlet, the prince knows something is rotten in Denmark, but he finds that he cannot speak publicly about it. All alone on stage, he says: “But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”

Today, it seems, he could just as easily be speaking about how we curate ourselves online in our unquenchable desire to be seen and heard by others. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Consider Shakespeare’s playhouse, an extraordinary gathering place for thousands of people. It was a space where all kinds of people could have conversations with the actors and each other about all kinds of themes, like the justice of “taming” an unruly woman (The Taming of the Shrew), how to push back against the power of a tyrant (Richard III) or how Christians might think differently about Jews (The Merchant of Venice).

Shakespeare opened established ways of thinking to questioning, inviting audiences to see the world and each other in new ways.

And audiences in Shakespeare’s time didn’t just sit quietly and listen. They interacted actively and loudly with the actors and the stories they saw on stage.

Historical research suggests theatre helped change early modern society by making it possible for commoners to have a public voice. In this way, Shakespeare contributed to the emergence of modern democratic culture.

Conversation pieces

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most frequently performed tragedies, and his anguish under a surveillance state speaks to our own struggles for freedom and belonging.

In his soliloquies, he questions his own indecisiveness, but he prompts the audience, too, searching for their support: “Am I a coward?” he asks. His questions break the fourth wall, looking for answers in the audience.

Sometimes they talk back: from an intoxicated spectator at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s who shouted “yes!” to a teenager at the Stratford Festival in 2022 who whispered “no,” audiences want to speak with Hamlet, responding to his self-doubt with their own perspectives.

Hamlet knew about the theatre’s liberating power, too. In his search for a public voice, he chose to stage a play to expose corruption in Denmark. “The play’s the thing,” he said, “wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

Psychology researchers agree. Attending a play is proven to provoke the awakening of conscience, helping audiences empathize with political views that differ from their own. This understanding leads to pro-social behaviour outside the theatre.

Empathy, insight and social engagement

After watching a play by American playwright Dominique Morisseau about the impacts of the 2008 auto plant closures in Detroit, audiences were more likely to donate to and volunteer with charities supporting the homeless.

Seeing the vulnerability of fellow human beings onstage helps audience members become more empathetic towards each others’ experiences.

Theatre also helps the artists who make it rediscover their humanity. In the 2013 book Shakespeare Saved My Life, English professor Laura Bates writes about her experience teaching “the bard” to men in solitary confinement who could only speak to each other through slots in their cell doors.

One incarcerated person found a kindred spirit in Richard II, who is imprisoned at the end of his play. Reading Macbeth helped him understand the mistakes he made in his search for power.

A woman in a similar program in Michigan saw herself in Lady Anne’s grief in Richard III. Beyond empathizing with the characters, prisoners also felt empowered to confront the roles they had played in their past and to imagine new roles for the future.

Building community

The path towards empowerment or freedom through theatre is not limited to incarcerated spaces or grand professional stages.

Liberating theatre can take place wherever people gather: in living rooms and community centres; in parks and church basements; in a drama classroom or even on Zoom, where people can read plays aloud, improvise scenes from their own lives and create new stories together.

These modest theatrical gatherings offer something our devices cannot: the experience of being present with others in shared creative work.

When we step into the roles of characters, we step outside the algorithmic predictions that have come to direct or define us online.

When we collaborate to tell a story, we build the kind of community that allows us to bear witness for each other. Hamlet ends with the Danish prince asking his friend, Horatio, to tell the truth about what has happened: “In this harsh world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story.”

The theatre’s liberating power belongs to anyone willing to gather with others, turn off their phones and tell stories.

Each small theatrical gathering becomes an act of resistance — a reclaiming of our capacity for connection and conversation.

Marie Trotter receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Paul Yachnin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. How Shakespeare can help us overcome loneliness in the digital age – https://theconversation.com/how-shakespeare-can-help-us-overcome-loneliness-in-the-digital-age-259628

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean Ketterling, Assistant Professor, Political Studies – Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of Saskatchewan

Following a campaign by Australian anti-porn organization Collective Shout, the video game distribution platforms Steam and itch.io recently made changes to their policies about hosting games with adult themes.

While Steam removed many games, the campaign has had a particularly strong effect on itch.io because it is a smaller company with low barriers for creators who want to publish their games. The changes meant all content deemed adult NSFW (not suitable for work) on itch.io was unsearchable.

The campaign has also involved pressuring payment processing companies to “cease processing payments” to platforms hosting games that Collective Shout views as objectionable.

Itch.io has since announced it will be re-indexing free adult NSFW content, making it searchable again, and is “actively reaching out to other payment processors that are more willing to work with this kind of content.”

The battle over NSFW content is provoking concern about censorship and threatening game makers’ livelihoods. As game studies scholars who focus on sex, sexuality, gender and sexual violence, we are concerned about censorship campaigns that target pornography, and the knock-on effects on queer creators and sexual education content.

---

Read more:
Thousands of games have been censored from major platforms, with LGBTQIA+ creators caught in the crossfire

---

What happened to NSFW content on itch.io and Steam?

According to a timeline published by Collective Shout, the campaign began in March 2025 as an effort to have the controversial game No Mercy removed from Steam. While the developer removed the game in April, Collective Shout then called on payment processors to stop processing payments for similar content.

The campaign is less interested in the content or context of these games than achieving the organization’s broader anti-pornography goals.

As journalist Emanuel Maiberg writes, while No Mercy may aim to shock, it retreads many commonplace pornographic tropes, and Steam offers users tools to filter out adult content.

Nonetheless, bringing such games to payment processors’ attention set off a chain reaction and provoked heightened scrutiny on a wide range of sexual content.

On July 16, the third-party data website Steam DB posted that Steam had updated its content policy and removed many games that appeared to have incest themes.

On July 24, itch.io released a statement explaining that it had de-indexed all adult NSFW content while it conducted a “comprehensive audit of content” to ensure that the platform “can meet the requirements of our payment processors.”

De-indexing content makes it impossible to find via a browser search (although it remains available through a direct link), provoking concern about censorship and loss of livelihood.

A counter-campaign to protest censorship also emerged and various industry groups responded.

Platform policies and pornography

Feminist movements have a long history of debating pornography, and nuanced research is readily available that carefully analyzes pornography, including in a dedicated academic journal. Similarly, there is a growing body of research on sex and sexuality in video games.

Anti-pornography movements, however, do not seem to be informed by these discussions and debates. Rather, campaigns like Collective Shout’s rely on feelings of discomfort, disgust and shock to bring about broad censorship.

This can undermine the diversity of sexual expression, punishes non-normative and kinky content and disproportionately affects LGBTQ+ creators.

Steam’s updated policy states that developers should not use their platform to publish content that violates payment processor or card network policy, “in particular, certain kinds of adult only content.”

Itch.io clarified its existing policy by providing a list of content prohibited by payment processors, including real or implied non-consensual content, underage or “barely legal” themes, incest or pseudo-incest content, bestiality or animal-related content and fetish content involving bodily waste or extreme harm, among others.

Such prohibitions may feel like common sense. However, there is a danger these provisions could be used to de-platform broad swaths of content. This could include games made by survivors of sexual violence or child abuse reflecting on their experiences, or consent education games such as Hurt Me Plenty.

Research has shown similar policies on porn platforms are interpreted so broadly that they de-platform otherwise legal content. When implemented, these policies impact creators’ abilities to earn a living.

De-platforming sex in games

Video game censorship is not new. American game developer Brenda Romero describes the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994 as the industry’s attempt to self-regulate after several controversies regarding violent and sexual content.

The ESRB was created by the Entertainment Software Association to assign age ratings to games in North America. While creating the ESRB helped stave off governmental regulation, it did so by curtailing the space for sexual expression in games.

Video games with explicit sexual content are likely to receive an adults only rating and large box chain retailers may refuse to stock them.

To be economically viable, game developers are forced to remove references to sexual activity from their games, as was the case with the infamous “hot coffee” modification in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

This type of self-censorship is a problem that extends beyond games. According to feminist media scholar Susanna Paasonen, platforms often conceptualize sex as risky, objectionable and lacking expressive value, imposing their subjective understanding of obscenity and risk on culturally diverse audiences.

Many arguments for censorship rely on an assumption that games predominately have an audience of children. However, the average American gamer is 36 years old, and removing access to diverse sexual content for adults is to deny an entire realm of human experience.

Thus, the “de-sexing” of platforms is a problem in and of itself.

Payment processors dictating content

Collective Shout’s appeal to payment processors is a strategy that exploits the power these companies have, because payment processors and credit card networks have significant influence on the sex industry. By refusing to process payments for certain products or services, they have the power to effectively censor anything they deem unnacceptable.

The process leaves little room for transparency around what qualifies as unacceptable, and can leave those impacted by such bans with limited ability to challenge them.

Given that payment processors focus more on protecting their brand reputation than promoting a diversity of sexual expression, they are vulnerable to the agendas of outspoken organizations that use them as a backdoor to police sexual expression.

As researchers, we are equally concerned with the ways these policies threaten the preservation of video games. Despite their long history, sex and pornography games are a neglected archive.

It is imperative to build and sustain public game archives that can withstand such targeted attacks and preserve the record of human desire from multiple perspectives.

Jean Ketterling is the principal investigator of The Pornography, Platforms & Play Project, which is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is the vice-president of the Canadian Game Studies Association.

Ashley ML Guajardo is president of the Digital Games Research Association.

Carl Therrien and Kenzie Gordon do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Censoring video games with sexual content suppresses the diversity of human desire – https://theconversation.com/censoring-video-games-with-sexual-content-suppresses-the-diversity-of-human-desire-262436

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jessica M. Theodor, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary

Last year, a Stegosaurus nicknamed “Apex” sold at auction for US$40.5 million. A juvenile Ceratosaurus fetched US$30.5 million just last month.

Supporters of these sales argue that they’re harmless, or even good for science. Others compare fossils to art objects, praising their beauty or historical charm.

As paleontologists, we say plainly: these views could not be more misguided.

Fossils are neither art objects nor trophies. They are scientific data that provide a tangible record of Earth’s deep history. Fossils are essential tools for understanding evolution, extinction, climate change and the origins and disappearances of ecosystems.

Their true value lies not in their price tags, but in what they teach. Of course, some fossils are beautiful. So are endangered white rhinoceros, but no one argues that rhinos should be auctioned off to the highest bidder. A fossil’s worth isn’t defined by it’s beauty, but by its permanent scientific accessibility.

Science versus ownership

Paleontologists are historians of deep time, studying life through millions of years. Our field is a science built upon the same fundamental principles as any other scientific disciplines. Data must be transparent, accessible, replicable and verifiable. For that to happen in paleontology, fossil specimens must be housed in public institutions with permanent collections.

Paleontological research is only scientific if the specimens under study are catalogued in public institutions that ensure access in perpetuity, so that other researchers can examine and continually assess and reassess the data fossils preserve.

That’s what makes the 1997 auction of the Tyrannosaurus rex specimen known as Sue different from today’s fossil auctions. Though it was a private sale, Sue was purchased by a public-private consortium, which included the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) in Chicago, the Walt Disney Company, McDonald’s Corporation and private donors. Sue’s skeleton was immediately placed in the public trust at the FMNH, an accredited museum, and formally catalogued.

Sue didn’t vanish into the private collection of an anonymous buyer. Instead, the T. rex became an accessible scientific resource for scientists and the public. This is exactly what should happen with all scientifically significant fossils.

Increasingly, some of the most remarkable fossils unearthed have gone into the vaults of private collectors. Even when buyers temporarily loan specimens to museums, as with Apex the Stegosaurus, these fossils remain off limits to meaningful scientific study.

Perpetual access

Leading scientific journals won’t publish research based on them for a simple reason: science demands permanent access.

Paleontological science depends on transparency, reproducibility and data reproducibility. A privately held fossil, no matter how spectacular, can disappear at any time on the whim of an owner. That uncertainty makes it impossible to guarantee that we can verify findings, repeat analyses, or use new technologies or methods on original material in the future.

Contrast that with fossils that are held in the public trust, like Sue the T. rex. Sue’s skeleton has been on display for nearly 20 years, and has been studied again and again. And as technology evolves, we address new scientific questions about ancient remains and deepen our understanding of the distant past, one study at a time.

Professional standards matter

It may be tempting to justify the commercial fossil trade by pointing to dinosaur-themed movies and toys, as if pop culture is a stand-in for real science. That is akin to arguing that paint-by-numbers kits are a good substitute for the art held in the Louvre. High-profile sales mislead the public by promoting the idea that completeness or large size are the only things that make a fossil significant.

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the world’s largest organization of professional paleontologists, has created ethical guidelines to reflect professional research standards. Critics have called them too strict, saying the rules should be “loosened.” But loosening our ethical standards would mean abandoning the very core of the scientific method in favour of convenience and profit.

---

Read more:
Thirty years after Jurassic Park hit movie screens, its impact on science and culture remains as strong as ever – podcast

---

It is unethical to sell human fossils or cultural artifacts to private collectors. The same standard should apply to dinosaurs and other fossil vertebrates. Fossils, whether common or spectacular and rare, are an irreplaceable record of our planet’s history.

Funding the future

Science should not be for sale. We suggest that fossil-loving millionaires and billionaires put their money where it can make a transformative difference. Instead of buying one skeleton, we encourage these fans to support the research, museums, students and scientific societies that breathe new life into ancient bones.

One single fossil’s price tag could fund years of groundbreaking discoveries, education and exhibitions. That’s a legacy worth leaving, especially at a time when funding for science is dwindling.

Jessica M. Theodor receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She is a former president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Kenshu Shimada is chair of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Government Affairs Committee.

Kristi Curry Rogers is Vice President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Stuart Sumida is president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

– ref. Fossils are scientific evidence, and shouldn’t be auctioned for millions to private buyers – https://theconversation.com/fossils-are-scientific-evidence-and-shouldnt-be-auctioned-for-millions-to-private-buyers-262777

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Kent Mundle, Senior Researcher, Lecturer in Architecture, University of Hong Kong

This summer, wildfires have caused evacuations across Canada and recently forced thousands of people to flee their homes in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Some of the biggest impacts are being felt in the Prairies. In Manitoba, authorities recently issued evacuation orders for 15,000 people, mostly in the province’s north. Many evacuees are brought to larger cities like Winnipeg, overwhelming hotels and emergency housing.

In Canada, climate-driven migration is often imagined as a distant threat that affects others in the world. But these evacuations foreshadow a future where internal displacement becomes a regular feature of Canadian life — and where cities must rethink how they plan for disruption.

Events like the 88,000-person evacuation from Fort McMurray, Alta. in 2016 and the destruction of Lytton, B.C. in 2021 show how fast rural populations can be displaced.

Manitoba’s evacuations are among largest in recent memory, and many evacuated communities are remote and poorly connected to infrastructure. For them, evacuation may soon become an annual reality.

At the University of Hong Kong’s District Development Unit research lab (DDU), we develop architectural and urban strategies for rapidly urbanising regions in the Global South, where settlements are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We’ve seen how post-disaster migration reshapes cities. These shifts are predictable in places where infrastructure and governance haven’t kept pace with climate volatility.

Rural-to-urban climate migration

Across Canada, services and infrastructure are already under stress. Housing is increasingly unaffordable, including in rural areas. Many rural regions, especially those with large Indigenous populations, struggle to access basic services.

Though these areas are home to 18 per cent of the population, they are served by only eight per cent of Canada’s physicians. More than one quarter of rural school districts report closures or consolidations due to underfunding. These structural weaknesses form the backdrop to a slow-moving crisis — one that climate events are accelerating.

Elsewhere in the world, disasters regularly drive rural-to-urban migration and permanent urban change. In countries like Nepal and the Philippines — where our lab works — these movements are often rapid, informal and far beyond the scope of traditional planning.

In Kathmandu, the 2015 earthquake struck a city already marked by informal housing and fragile services. It accelerated a haphazard urban transformation characterized by uncontrolled sprawl, unsafe informal construction and overstretched infrastructure.

In the Philippines, typhoon recovery is often driven by necessity, with residents rebuilding informally. This results in growing slums and increasing vulnerability to future disasters.

These dynamics create new urban landscapes. In some cases, local governments are taking the lead, for example, by establishing local evacuation centres in the Philippines.

Elsewhere, informal encampments, home extensions and land occupations take hold. These are responses that reflect not only survival, but governance: provisional infrastructures are built through necessity, negotiation and collective care.

Canada’s climate urbanism

Canada is not exempt from these dynamics. When disaster strikes, evacuees often seek refuge in cities, where better public infrastructure offers some stability. As climate change fuels ever-larger wildfires, this trend will grow, with smaller urban centres absorbing more people fleeing climate-stressed regions.

Yet policy remains far behind. There is no national framework for climate-induced displacement. Canada’s immigration and housing policies have no category for internal climate migration. Disaster response remains reactive, coordinated mainly by municipalities and provinces through short-term tools like 211 or temporary shelters.

Interjurisdictional planning is minimal. Municipal climate plans rarely anticipate population surges or extended pressure on housing. Displacement is still treated as an occasional event, not as an enduring part of Canadian urban life.

Canada must begin to learn from places already living this future.

In Taiwan, civic centres double as emergency shelters, equipped with backup power, water tanks and seismic isolation systems. In Japan, disaster-prevention parks embed solar lighting, cooking stations and toilets into public green spaces.

And in Mongolia, our lab has developed incremental urban strategies for Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts — clustering growth, infrastructure and housing to adapt to rapid, uncertain settlement patterns.

These examples reflect a model of urbanism in which emergency response and long-term development are not separate, but part of a continuous, negotiated process.

What Canada can do

Canada’s geography, governance and urban forms demand their own set of protocols and prototypes. While lessons from elsewhere can guide us, they cannot be copied wholesale.

This means it is vital to develop a national framework for internal climate migration that integrates climate displacement into the National Housing Strategy.

All orders of governments should focus of developing multi-use resilience infrastructure, such as community centres and schools equipped for emergency response, and advancing adaptive housing policies that can expand or contract with demand.

Canada once helped shape global thinking on the transformation of urban areas. The 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference in Vancouver, catalyzed by the efforts of architects and planners, called for new models of settlement and development grounded in equity, participation and awareness of our planet’s limits.

Nearly 50 years later, that unfinished legacy has a new urgency.

Today, climate displacement calls for a shift in how architects engage with the built environment — moving toward coordinated action with communities, policymakers and allied fields, and embracing models of practice that move beyond the traditional role of service provider — to actively initiate change.

Architects must engage not only with buildings, but with the frameworks that govern land, infrastructure and migration itself. This means challenging the professional neutrality that too often aligns design with extractive systems, and instead welcoming practices capable of working across institutions, jurisdictions and communities.

A national summit could mark the beginning of this shift by creating a forum to discuss climate migration and design the tools, policies and partnerships that will shape its outcomes.

The question is not whether climate movement will occur, but whether we will be prepared to meet it with intention, care and foresight.

Any proceeds from the DDU are reinvested in the research lab based at the University of Hong Kong.

– ref. Canadian cities are unprepared for climate-driven migration — here’s what they can do – https://theconversation.com/canadian-cities-are-unprepared-for-climate-driven-migration-heres-what-they-can-do-262490

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Stephanie Bogue Kerr, Adjunct professor, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Addiction is a widespread health issue that will affect about one in five Canadians over their lifetimes. For example, addiction to opioids has led to opioid and overdose crises in many cities, which has brought the social question of addiction to the forefront.

Treating addiction can be challenging, because different approaches work for different people. Some provinces are considering forced treatments, doubling down on approaches that have shown limited success.

As social work researchers in addiction and sport, we believe it is time to consider alternative approaches.

On the surface, overcoming addiction may appear as simple as choosing not to sip, smoke or snort a substance. However, it is more complex than that. Addiction is a relationship with a substance. Seen this way, recovery can be understood as a process of learning to move forward from the relationship, which requires living differently without it.

Research suggests exercise might help with recovery from addiction. It is a substance-free pleasure that might boost mood, and help alleviate cravings and mental health symptoms, which could protect against relapse. Even though there are running groups for people in recovery, particularly in the United States, most research has been done on treadmills in clinics during addiction treatment. This leaves many questions about how people use running in their recovery processes over time, who benefits, and why.

We adopted a research approach that we hoped would provide context. We wanted to understand how running helped people make the transition from using drugs or alcohol to a life without them. For example:

• How did running experiences build up over time to the point where these came to replace drugs or alcohol?
• How did sensations experienced by the person (heartbeat, breathing) and the environment (city noises, nature sounds) shape the relationship to running and to the body?
• What was the importance of community, gear, goals, and races?

We ran with 11 people who had lived with addiction and had used running in their recovery, talking to them about their experiences. Participants were adults in their mid-30s to mid-50s, who self-identified as having been addicted to a substance and had been engaged in a recovery process for three or more years. Most identified alcohol as their main substance.

We conducted two running interviews with each person, in and around Metropolitan Vancouver, in places where they regularly ran.

Non-linear process

The results show that lives organized around drugs or alcohol were slowly organized by running.

At first, most participants were motivated by weight-loss goals, not recovery. They continued taking substances while they trained for races, sometimes having a quick drink before setting out on a long run.

As goals were met, runs became longer and faster. New challenges motivated structured training, better nutrition and sleep, and substance use slowly faded as life became increasingly organized around running.

Many policies and programs aim for abstinence, and it is not unusual for people to be kicked out of treatment because they relapsed, which is a known symptom of addiction. In running, participants found a way to ease into change, finding hope in glimpses of the life it offered. Their processes suggest abstinence was not necessary for running to have psychosocial benefits.

Community

Addiction often strains relationships with friends and family, so it can be a lonely experience. This is compounded by the stigma of addiction, which can make it difficult to access treatment. Alone with your thoughts, it is hard to imagine another life is possible. This is another complication of addiction. Soothing loneliness is an important part of recovery, but being with others can be very vulnerable when someone feels fragile.

In this study, the malleability of running was important. Since it can be practised alone or in groups, participants could pace their involvement with the run community. Through light conversations about running shoes, participants experimented and practised at building new friendships.

These discussions and relationships deepened over time through longer and longer runs. Most participants had become active members of the run community, participating not only in group training, but also taking on roles in race operations, volunteering and coaching.

Run groups are widely available and open to anyone with a will to run. Perhaps most importantly, they do not carry the stigma of addiction, but rather the social values associated with discipline and hard work.

Childhood sport

Interestingly, all participants had childhood experiences of sport that had been interrupted during adolescence or young adulthood.

Being in a state of addiction meant the participants’ physical sensations of their own bodies were preoccupied with the presence or absence of the substance. At times though, participants recalled the joy of movement that they had previously known and were motivated to find it again. This suggests that running may be a particularly effective intervention for those with childhood experiences of sport.

For participants of our study, recovery started from the body. The organizational structure that running provided, complete with tangible goals and a community to support their achievements, made it possible for participants to envision a new life before they chose to change their use of substances.

Running instilled within them hope for a better life, which they embraced with a resounding enthusiasm that echoed the cheers at the finish line.

Stephanie Bogue Kerr receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Nicolas Moreau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Running is a substance-free pleasure that supports addiction recovery – https://theconversation.com/running-is-a-substance-free-pleasure-that-supports-addiction-recovery-261918

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Catherine Frost, Professor of Political Science, McMaster University

Canada and the United Kingdom have said they will recognize Palestinian statehood during the United Nations General Assembly in September, provided certain conditions are met.

Canada’s position is premised on seeing political and military reform from the Palestinian Authority, the governing body responsible for the autonomous Palestinian territories.

The U.K., responding to a severe food crisis in Gaza, said it would extend recognition unless the Israeli government agrees to a ceasefire, takes steps to “end the appalling situation in Gaza” and commits to a “long-term, sustainable peace.”

---

Read more:
Why UK recognition of a Palestinian state should not be conditional on Israel’s actions

---

These cautious, conditional endorsements reflect the workings of a dated international system that governs the birth of states. France, by contrast, has opted to recognize Palestine without conditions. What explains these different approaches?

Officially, state recognition is governed by international law. In practice, it is subject to a complex mix of national, global and moral considerations.

This process grants existing states significant discretion in recognizing new ones, with the expectation that such decisions serve international peace. But this can result in an uneven statehood process for aspiring nations.

How states are born

The 1933 Montevideo Convention outlines the core criteria for statehood recognition: a permanent population, control over a defined territory, a functioning government and the capacity to open relations with other states.

When recognition is given on this basis, it is essentially acknowledging that these qualities are already in place. Yet these requirements are not iron clad, and some experts have argued that recognition can also be extended on humanitarian or moral grounds, such as in response to human rights violations.

In such cases, recognition becomes more of a statement that a state should have the opportunity to exist, rather than a confirmation that it already does. The classic case would be a group facing colonial domination. The American colonies appealed to this principle in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, for example.

Because individual states decide when such exceptions apply, these measures provide uncertain relief for aspiring nations.

As a final step, new states can apply for membership in the UN. This application is first considered by the UN Security Council. If nine states agree, and none of the council’s permanent members object, the application continues to the UN General Assembly for approval.

But a single veto from any of the five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the United States — can paralyze statehood at the start. In 2024, for example, the U.S. vetoed Palestine’s request for full UN membership.

Statehood in waiting

To date, 147 of 193 states in the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood. Palestine has also had special observer status at the UN since 2012, and before that it had limited standing before international courts typically reserved for states.

But Palestine is not the only instance where the international system has struggled to address atypical or contested statehood.

After a wave of recognitions in post-colonial Africa and post-Second World War Europe, the recognition of new states slowed to a crawl toward the end of the 20th century. This trend suggests there is a conservative quality to the recognition system.

Wary of rewarding violent separatism, international bodies have traditionally favoured negotiated solutions for state birth, including upholding a parent-state veto over any independence efforts.

This principle was most clearly articulated by the Canadian Supreme Court in a 1998 advisory opinion. It warned that an independent Québec, without first agreeing on terms of exit with the rest of Canada, was unlikely to gain international recognition.

There is wisdom to this approach, but such rules cannot prevent political breakdown in every case. A growing number of unrecognized states have left millions stranded in political limbo.

This includes Somaliland, which split from Somalia in 1991 and has been operating as a de facto state ever since without receiving formal recognition from any other country.

Palestine is not an instance of state breakup, but rather an unresolved case of colonization and occupation. Decades of negotiations with Israel, the occupying power, have failed. Yet formal statehood has still proven elusive. A cumbersome recognition system may be helping to keep the problem alive.

Cracks in the system

Even when recognition occurs, the results can be disappointing.

South Sudan, the UN’s newest member, was universally recognized in 2011 under close UN supervision and with the consent of its parent state, Sudan. Yet it quickly descended into civil war — a conflict it has yet to fully emerged from.

Kosovo was recognized by states like the U.S. and Canada when it declared independence in 2008 following the breakup of Yugoslavia, but it still has fewer recognitions than Palestine.

A handful of states like Togo and Sierra Leone even began de-recognizing it under pressure from Kosovo’s one-time parent state, Serbia, although there is a broadly accepted principle that once a state is recognized, barring any complete disaster, it should remain recognized.

Meanwhile, rising sea levels threaten to leave some island states like Tuvalu without the territorial requirements for normal statehood. The International Court of Justice has signalled the statehood of such nations should survive, but has not said how.

---

Read more:
The Australia-Tuvalu deal shows why we need a global framework for climate relocations

---

These examples suggest the current state recognition system is ill equipped to face today’s changing world.

Allowing established states to set the rules for who qualifies is unlikely to solve these current problems. While setting special terms for new entrants may have value in the short term, the longer term need is for a more fair and transparent system.

Experts are working on ways to make the system more inclusive for aspiring states and unrepresented peoples, including by opening up access to diplomatic venues. If successful, these measures could change the way future states are born.

Catherine Frost receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Canada and the U.K.’s conditional recognition of Palestine reveal the uneven rules of statehood – https://theconversation.com/canada-and-the-u-k-s-conditional-recognition-of-palestine-reveal-the-uneven-rules-of-statehood-262418

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Scott Mills, PhD Candidate, Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina

Creatine supplementation is booming among those seeking greater muscle size and performance.

Although creatine is certainly not a new discovery, with research dating back to the 1830s, its popularity and sales have continued to grow, and have expanded beyond bodybuilders and athletes to clinical applications and benefits beyond muscle performance.

Today, creatine stands as one of the most researched supplements, and new findings continue to support its use for consistent and measurable results in bodybuilding, fitness and overall health.

While creatine is naturally found in foods like red meat and seafood, and also produced naturally in the body, supplementation has surged in popularity, especially among young men.

This growth in popularity is largely due to young men’s desire to increase muscle size and muscle strength. Several meta-analyses have looked at the effects of creatine supplementation during resistance training on properties of muscle, and support its use and effectiveness when combined with resistance training.

Simply put, creatine can help maintain energy levels, especially during short-duration, high-intensity exercise like weight training.

Creatine’s role in the body

From a physiological perspective, once in the body, the majority of creatine is stored in the muscle as phosphocreatine (PCr). In this form, it can help maintain energy levels through the maintenance of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the body’s primary energy currency.

Because creatine supplementation increases intramuscular levels of creatine, it may enable resistance training at a higher intensity and for longer durations, leading to greater gains in the gym.

Although creatine’s impact on muscle performance may be more well known, it does not paint the whole picture. Research is revealing creatine’s positive impact outside the muscular system, showing positive effects on the storage and metabolism of glucose, blood-flow dynamics, anti-inflammatory effects and positive benefits for cognition and brain function, to name a few.

Dosage and safety

From a research perspective, dosage recommendations for men can vary, but typically either five grams of creatine daily, or a customized dosage based on bodyweight of (0.1 grams per kilogram per day) have been shown to be well-tolerated and effective for increasing muscle performance.

From a food intake perspective, to consume about five grams of creatine in the diet, an individual would have to consume about 1.15 kilograms of beef, or about a kilogram of pork, for example. This means even a diet that is high in creatine-containing foods may not be enough to maximize its benefits.

The high calorie content of eating enough of these foods to reach the target creatine intake makes supplementation a practical and appealing option, both for ease of consumption and calorie considerations.

Also, from a cost perspective, at about $0.50 per serving, it’s an easy and cost-effective strategy to reach creatine intake goals. With new forms of creatine seemingly being released all the time (capsules, gummies and flavoured powders), it makes it easy to maintain intake.

Regarding the safety of creatine supplementation, a position stand paper by the International Society of Sports Nutrition concluded that creatine supplementation poses no greater adverse effects in healthy individuals compared to placebo, even with higher dosages.

With that being said, creatine hasn’t been immune to its share of negative claims. Anecdotally, creatine may have some whispers of undesirable side-effects; however, research looking at common myths and misconceptions of creatine (including concerns about water retention, hair loss and dehydration) have largely removed many of the fears.

Resistance training is key

It’s important to note that while creatine consumption on its own may still show some positive effects, it is largely creatine consumption in combination with resistance training that leads to benefits.

Resistance training can increase measures of muscle growth and performance (muscle power, muscle strength and muscle endurance) and it’s the combination of creatine with resistance training that will maximize its effects. So resistance training is a paramount component to the positive effects of creatine.

Of course, creatine is not an essential nutrient. Individuals can see improvements in muscle growth and muscle performance while focusing on the intake of high-quality and nutrient-rich foods, a well-designed individualized resistance training program, combined with adequate high-quality sleep and proper stress management without the need to supplement creatine.

A healthy lifestyle is the foundation of well-being, including the groundwork for effectively building muscle.

Creatine supplementation has made its way into the hands of those seeking the secret to greater muscle size and performance. It is well researched and widely accepted, and it continues to increase in popularity due to the positive effects when paired with a solid resistance training program, its safe risk profile when consumed at evidence-based dosages and its low-cost.

While creatine supplementation is not essential, it may be a practical, affordable and effective choice for those seeking muscle growth benefits and beyond.

Scott Mills does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The creatine boom: Trends and facts about supplements and use – https://theconversation.com/the-creatine-boom-trends-and-facts-about-supplements-and-use-261817

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Anne-Marie Nicol, Associate Professor, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University

In recent decades, the number and severity of wildfires across Canada has increased due to climate change and a more wildfire-prone landscape.

While wildfires can wreak havoc in their immediate area, wildfire smoke can travel thousands of kilometres, putting millions more people at risk from the adverse impacts.

Research on wildfire smoke and health shows that smoke is more than just an irritant. It is increasingly clear that older adults, pregnant people and young children face higher risks to their health, including premature birth, hospitalization and premature death.

One way to reduce smoke exposure is to stay indoors and create a “clean air shelter” by closing the doors, windows and using an air cleaner to remove smoke and other particles from the air.

However, that is easier said than done for many people. While effective, store-bought air cleaners can be expensive and require pricey replacement filters.

In addition, many homes don’t have air conditioners and easily trap heat. Closing all windows means reducing ventilation, and can make hot summer days even more unpleasant. Another option, popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the idea of building your own air cleaner, using easily sourced parts from local hardware stores.

Do-it-yourself air cleaners

In British Columbia, we started The BREATHE Project to study the impacts of wildfires and distribute information about DIY air cleaners.

A 2023 article by the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health compiled evidence on the effectiveness of do-it-yourself (DIY) air cleaners as an alternative to store-bought units.

The results showed that DIY air cleaners are not only more affordable and accessible, but are equally as effective, as long as the correct parts are used and the room size is taken into consideration.

This includes the use of a MERV-13 filter, a minimum 75-watt box fan, duct tape and a shroud cover on the front corners of the fan. One unit can clean a small room, and multiple units can be used for larger spaces.

DIY air cleaners also help reduce other air contaminants including allergens, mold spores, emissions from woodstoves, respiratory pathogens, dust, and traffic related air pollutants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found similar results in their analysis of DIY air cleaners and determined that the units are safe to use as built.

The BREATHE Project

Our team at Simon Fraser University partnered with the BC Lung Foundation to share this knowledge about cleaner indoor air with communities across British Columbia.

In 2023, we launched a pilot project in the Lower Mainland to find out if workshops about making DIY air cleaners could be feasible. These workshops were held in community centers, libraries, seniors’ centers and neighbourhood houses, with the average participant being over 70 years old and with at least one medical condition.

We were surprised to find that our workshops were fully booked within days of advertising, and that news of our project was quickly spreading by word of mouth within communities.

We used participant feedback to fine-tune our materials and created instructional videos, and a train-the-trainer manual to guide other organizations on how to host similar workshops.

In 2024, we took the project into B.C.’s Interior Health Authority region, where fires were more frequent and more severe.

We named our project BREATHE: Building Resilience to Emerging Airborne Threats and Heat Events and have since added additional resources for communities grappling with the co-exposure of wildfire smoke and extreme heat.

BREATHE has now partnered with all of B.C.’s health authorities. We have hosted over 90 workshops so far this year, many in northern, rural and remote regions. Workshops have been held in the Cowichan Valley, Lower Mainland, Central Okanagan, the Kootenays and the Northern Rockies.

The project has helped build over 2,500 air cleaners and brought important information about community resilience to people directly impacted by these exposures.

BREATHE also serves as a launchpad for research on the impacts of wildfire smoke on at-risk populations across the province.

Everyone can take steps to protect their health when it is smoky outside. Our resources, including our train-the-Trainer guides and step-by-step videos are free and available on our website. If you are interested in hosting your own workshops, or seeking a collaboration, please reach out through our website.

Anne-Marie Nicol is a Knowledge Mobilization Specialist at the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Prem Gundarah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. DIY air cleaners are an easy and cost-effective way to help ventilate homes during wildfires – https://theconversation.com/diy-air-cleaners-are-an-easy-and-cost-effective-way-to-help-ventilate-homes-during-wildfires-261336